Colorful 9-story mural to stay on Milwaukee Junction
building under court settlement

Katherine Craig's "The Illuminated Mural" was painted on this building at 2937 E. Grand Blvd. in 2009.

A Detroit-based artist and a Bloomfield Township-based real estate company have reached an agreement that will allow Katherine Craig's colorful "The Illuminated Mural" to remain in place on the side of a Milwaukee Junction building.

In a joint statement provided to Crain's, Princeton Enterprises LLC's law firm in the case, Southfield-based Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss PC, said the building at 2937 E. Grand Blvd. is under contract to Detroit-based The Platform LLC, which "has agreed to honor — and extend — a previous agreement allowing 'The Illuminated Mural' to stay on the side of the building for several years to come."

Crain'sreported last month that The Platform — founded by Peter Cummings and Dietrich Knoer — has the building under contract.

The building, built for the Detroit Storage Co. a century ago, sits just east of the northern terminus of the QLine streetcar project. That makes it a prime redevelopment prospect in a neighborhood just east of the New Center area, which has attracted considerable real estate investment recently due to the rail project and a shortage of quality multifamily rental housing in the greater downtown area.

Craig, whose nine-story mural adorns the western wall of the 73,000-square-foot building, sought an injunction in a January 2016 lawsuit under the federal Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 barring the destruction of the mural, created in 2009.

"I'm really happy we got a break-through with 'The Illuminated Mural' where we are able to protect the work and maintain the original contract, which was the goal," Craig said Friday afternoon. "It's respect for the artwork that's there and the future of the community, and the developer as well. We reached a middle ground there that I am happy with."

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit, said the mural was in danger because Princeton Enterprises, whose founder and CEO is Matt Lester, put the building up for auction in 2015 (it did not sell) and has considered redeveloping the building into multifamily housing. It is currently vacant.

Larry Peplin

Katherine Craig sued to protect her "Illuminated Mural" (pictured) on a building on East Grand Boulevard.

Lester declined comment.

The lawsuit said Craig received $33,000 in funding from the College for Creative Studies Community + Public Arts: Detroit program for the project.

It also said that after Craig received the CCS funding, she searched for properties to house the mural, eventually reaching an agreement with Dennis Kefallinos' Detroit-based Boydell Development Co. to put the mural at 2937 East Grand. Boydell owned the building at the time.

According to the lawsuit, a contract was signed, with Boydell agreeing the mural would "remain on the building for no less than a 10 years time period." Craig, the lawsuit says, "never 'expressly agreed' to a waiver of her lifetime rights of attribution and integrity" under the federal law. She has provided subsequent property owners with paperwork notifying them of her copyright on the mural obtained in 2012, according to the lawsuit.

More than 100 gallons of paint were used for the mural, as were some unique items to apply it, including fire extinguishers and salad dressing bottles, according to the lawsuit.

The Visual Artists Rights Act allows visual artists to protect their work from "any intentional distortion, mutilation, or other modification of that work which would be prejudicial to his or her honor or reputation."